John Ternus will be replacing Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO this upcoming September, ending Cook’s 15-year long stint as the company’s head.

Ternus will be standing in the shoes of giants. Steve Jobs is touted as the one who turned Apple into the cultural powerhouse it is today. Through products such as the iMac, iPod, and iPhone, Jobs defined Apple’s visual identity and allowed it to stand out amongst its competitors. Cook’s time as CEO saw a financial ballooning of the company, with his business practices leading to Apple’s first trillion-dollar valuation and continuing to prove immensely profitable.

This legacy begs the question: What will define Ternus’ time as CEO?

Ternus has been part of Apple since 2001 as part of the product design team. 12 years later, he became Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering. This allowed him to oversee the production of a multitude of Apple products. He was instrumental in the introduction of the AirPods, a product that is projected to earn Apple a cumulative revenue of $100 billion in 2026.

Recently, Apple has been lauded for their hardware. The M series of Macs have proven year after year to be one of the best computers available on the market, with the devices being broadly praised for their impressive power and consistency in handling large workflows that would incapacitate most other computers. The iPhone is another piece of hardware that has seen widespread success recently, having brought in approximately $49 billion in Q4 2025, a 6% increase year-over-year, with only a partial contribution from the newly launched iPhone 17 lineup.

The most recent of Ternus’ successes would be the MacBook Neo, released in March 2026. As Apple’s foray into the mid-range price point of computers at $599, it has taken the world by storm, selling out their April inventory and pushing all orders into the next month.

With these triumphs in mind, it is easy to see why Ternus was seen as a suitable successor. In a press release announcing Ternus’ appointment as CEO, Tim Cook sang his praises.

“John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor,” he said. “He is a visionary whose contributions to Apple over 25 years are already too numerous to count, and he is without question the right person to lead Apple into the future.”

It can be assumed that Ternus will align closer to Jobs, focusing on products for the betterment of the end consumer. The MacBook Neo stands as the most recent expression of this philosophy in being a machine designed to expand the boundaries of who Apple can reach. It cannot be definitively said where Apple will stand in popular culture 15 years from now, but it can be surmised that Ternus will be remembered with having a hand in one of the strongest product lineups Apple has had in its history.